


Alma Mía

by convexxed



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Age Swap, Fantasy, Fluff, Jongin is a sweetheart, KaiSoo - Freeform, Light Angst, M/M, Merman!Kyungsoo, Mild Gore, Romance, kadi - Freeform, surfer!Jongin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 15:48:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11924124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/convexxed/pseuds/convexxed
Summary: Where humans are like oysters with their mortal bodies and immortal souls that are more precious than all the pearls in the sea, merfolk are empty vessels devoid of a soul and tears. Kyungsoo's heart yearns for the void within him to be filled, and for the love of a man he'll never have.





	1. 1/2

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bbubbleddae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbubbleddae/gifts).



> Hello! Wow, I can't believe I wrote practically 60% of this fic in a little over a week, ha. This was a challenge, as I had never written anything with this theme before, and I must admit that at first I was scared of how the fic would turn out but I can say now that I'm incredibly satisfied and proud with the outcome. I learned a lot and made myself cry, oops. To my beta, I owe you SO MUCH for helping me out with putting together this piece. Seriously, this turned out the way it did thanks to you. To my recipient, I tweaked your prompt a bit while developing the story but I hope that this suits your taste enough and that you enjoy it! This was heavily inspired by NCT 127's 'Sun and Moon', so please giveit a listen! Due to its length and a significant event that takes place at some point in the story, the fic has been split in two parts for everyone's convenience. This is my first time writing for Kaisoommer and my heart is beating so fast from how nervous I am. Everyone, enjoy the exchange and have fun reading! xo

Sparks fly in the air when calloused fingers strike a match against the surface of a nearby rock, effectively starting a small flame at the end of a rolled old newspaper that a man uses later to set ablaze a pile of haphazardly arranged driftwood. Bright flames rise into the starry sky and dance to the sound of the waves and the seagulls flying towards the setting sun, sinking into the horizon as the moon takes its place among the clouds and the twinkling stars.

The man rolls up the sleeves of his white cotton shirt and cuffs the hem of his trousers before taking a seat on the sand with his knees bent and arms wrapped round them, his gaze cast upwards. Amber and silver bathe his skin and the salty breeze playing with his hair carries the echo of the voices of men that once sailed to explore the world and never came back, but he can’t hear any of the stories they tell.

In the distance, farther into the sea and out of the man’s field of vision, a pair of aquamarine eyes observe him and his every move. They’re filled with curiosity and awe, for they had never seen before anything like fire and smoke, but what truly peaks the creature’s interest is the man himself. He isn’t doing anything else besides gazing at the stars and sometimes at the tides, though thankfully not in the direction of his silent observer, occasionally reaching into the smaller pile of driftwood for more twigs to add to the bonfire. 

This cycle repeats on a loop for the next hour until the man decides he’s had enough and pushes himself up, then proceeds to put off the fire with sand after dusting off the one clinging to his clothes and sticking to his skin. The amber light has been engulfed by the dusk and only silver remains now, and the owner of the curious aquamarine eyes scowls at the reflection of the full moon etched onto the smooth surface of the water for making fun of him.

“You’re a stubborn one. Aren’t you?”

“I’m not in the mood tonight.” He murmurs, jutting his bottom lip out and lightly shaking his head, making wet strands of dark hair bounce. “And you sure are one to talk! You keep on chasing after the Sun, even though you know it’s unlikely that you can ever share the same sky.”

The Moon cackles. “We have, but we can never touch each other. I go to bed when he rises, but by the time I come back he’s already bidding me farewell. It’s a never-ending tag game that we’ve played for years, since before there was any form of life on Earth.”

“Does it ever get easier?” The large clear eyes dart away from the shore at last and turn towards the Moon, who in return offers a sympathetic smile to the lonely creature seeking purchase in the quiet of the night and her metaphorical arms.

“To chase what I’ll never have? No. But I have you, and that makes the wait bearable.” Says the Moon with such sweetness that it makes the stars nearby twinkle with mirth and, although it’s not nearly enough to soothe his aching heart, he smiles as well and thanks the Moon for her words and her company. She speaks the language of solitude and longing too, after all, and some nights Kyungsoo wishes he could grow wings to join her up in her starry kingdom but alas, he was given a shimmery fishtail that bound him to spend his life among the waves instead of soaring the skies.

 

~*~

 

Sirens were deceiving creatures, as told by Greek mythology, with their beautiful faces and enchanting voices but also a well concealed hunger for human flesh, but thankfully Kyungsoo’s nature is not blood-thirsty oriented. He’s heard everything there is to know about his predecessors – from how they used their voices to lure unlucky sailors close and lead them to their demise, to their extinction a couple of hundreds of years ago by the hands of ruthless men that used arrows and bullets to pierce the hearts of the winged women until there was not one left to sing.

Or that’s what they made everyone believe.

For, you see, sirens were incredibly smart and befriended the nereids when they realised that the depths of the sea would offer far more protection than the open sky. They shed their wings and joined the nereids into their journeys and games, learning from them how to hold their breaths underwater and swim, and teaching the curious nymphs about the unexplored potential of their voices in return.

It’s unclear whether the nereids softened the sirens or the latter corrupted the former, as there are no records on any book, but it’s widely believed that they evolved into what we know as merfolk. Half-fish and half-human, most of the population has settled for living a tranquil life under the sea in company of their own kind and other fish, whereas the adventurous ones would more likely choose to roam about the open sea seeking for new thrills in unexplored bays and the carcasses of sunken ships.

True to their siren heritage, albeit all in good nature, sometimes the mermaids would swim to the surface to bask in the warm sunlight or to watch the ships passing by and sing to the tripulants on board, urging them to abandon their duties and join them in the sea for some fun. The sailors would jump off the deck to find their demise in the cold claws of the waves, deaf and blind to the danger that lied within the sweet voices reciting such beautiful songs and promises of love. However, as soon as the spell cast on them wore off they would start screaming for help and flapping their arms about trying to stay afloat, which the mermaids interpreted as rejection (for they couldn’t understand that humans weren’t made to breathe underwater), and immediately lost all interest in them. They’d let their lungs fill with salty water and drown, then watch as their lifeless bodies sank to the floor of the ocean to join the remnants of hundreds of men that had perished thousands of years ago in a similar fashion.

Kyungsoo had never been particularly interested about the surface and those that lived in the world above, as everything he needed and cherished could be found under the sea: he lived happily with his brothers and sisters in a big house whose walls were made of bright pink coral and large shells had been turned into doors, with woven sea weed as curtains and a small garden where schools of fish came to play every other day.

They had music, too, as well as other fine arts such as dance, sculpture and painting, that were taught at schools and highly praised by everyone. Some of his sisters were skilled in dancing and told stories through the movements of their arms and every twist of their tails; one of his brothers had learned to paint since a very young age while the other was a remarkable sculptor with the ability of producing breathtaking life-sized statues of merfolk and plenty of other sea creatures. Not everyone was art-oriented, though. Merfolk were also inclined towards different fields of study, such as architecture and medicine, and would spend their days either swimming alongside schools of fish and turtles, chatting away with them in regard to their feeding habits and such, or collecting samples of different materials and testing their resistance and durability for future building and home decor purposes.

Kyungsoo likes music. 

He fancies thinking of his heart as a metronome that beats in a rather unchanging tempo most of the time –slow and fluid—, and when he laughs he does in it Do and sometimes in Re-Mi. Nowadays, the tempo of Kyungsoo’s heart seems to have changed: it ticks faster, as if it were playing a different tune, and it consequently makes his pulse rise. He blames it on the man he’s seen by the shore, either busy collecting driftwood or watching the sun as it sets with one of those strange fire sticks perched between his lips. Some days he stands by for only a few minutes before walking away as if he had somewhere more important to be, leaving the young merman to wonder where he was headed to and what his life was like. Some other days he would arrive when the sun was still up and leave late, staying around long enough for Kyungsoo to begin dreading the moment they’d have to part ways again until their next encounter. (Though that might be a stretch, for the man is still unaware of Kyungsoo’s existence and the merman doesn’t dare come any closer to the shore.)

Tonight, Kyungsoo is back at his usual spot behind a rock with his large aquamarine eyes fixed on the man lying on the sand with his arms and legs stretched out, a hint of a smile playing on the merman’s plump, rosy lips. There is a New Moon on the sky above, hence his usually talkative celestial companion is quiet tonight, but he isn’t bothered by the lack of conversation; rather, he’s grateful for the silence, as it allows him to bask in the peaceful sight before him and ponder over the endless questions it arose.

Would the man’s skin feel rough and warm beneath Kyungsoo’s palm like the sand after a sunny day, or would it be cool and smooth like the head of a stray dolphin he once petted? Is his voice loud and powerful like the roaring thunder amidst a storm, or low and soothing like the murmur of bubbles? What colour are his eyes? Is their colour blue like the sky, green like sea weed, or grey like clouds loaded with rain? Perhaps they’re brown, like the driftwood he collects and sets aflame at night to keep himself warm?

Would he find Kyungsoo beautiful with his dark hair and its blue undertones, his pale grey-stained skin, and his large pointy ears and round aquamarine eyes? Would he freak out if he saw that Kyungsoo had a fishtail instead of props to walk on, like him, or would his fin and scales spark his curiosity?

Would Kyungsoo’s young love and blind devotion make the man’s heart beat as fast as his own did whenever he emerged from his world of water and saw him there, gazing towards the horizon?

Would he ever build up the courage to abandon his hideout and swim closer to the shore, and perhaps one day even dare to talk to him? Or, would he have the same fate as the Moon and longingly watch the man from afar until his days were over? For, you see, dearest reader, merfolk lived longer that humans –an average of 300 years, to be exact—and they aged slower, too. Would Kyungsoo be strong enough to endure heartbreak and withstand the departure of a loved one?

Five nights and four days pass until Kyungsoo begins to feel anxious regarding his and the man’s fate, growing concerned that he might be wasting precious time playing underwater and becoming fearful to come up one night and find that the man is gone. Maybe forever.

“You’re restless.” The waxing Moon murmurs from her spot on the sky, partially hidden behind a stray cloud and still far from returning to her glorious full shape that makes both humans and merfolk turn their eyes towards her and bask in her beauty. However, Kyungsoo has always found her to be breathtaking regardless of what phase she’s in. “Won’t you share your woes with me, child?”

Kyungsoo swims towards a nearby rock formation and hoists himself up with the aid of his strong arms, shaking his head to get his hair away from his face although he only manages to get the wet strands stuck to his damp skin. He promptly brushes them away and swishes his tail in annoyance (just like a cat would, except he doesn’t know what a cat is), furrowing his eyebrows as he runs the pads of his fingers over the scales, carefully plucking out an old one that has become dull and colourless. Kyungsoo’s tail is a magnificent display of various shades of blue that resemble the ocean itself: the base is sapphire layered with cerulean highlights and splotches of indigo around the hips and where his thighs and ankles would be if he had legs and feet, and the fin at its end is Prussian blue with streaks of silver.

He’d always felt proud of his tail but nowadays he could barely stand seeing it, as it reminded him of his limitations and one-sided love that he doesn’t know how to handle.

“My heart is heavy tonight,” he starts carefully, stealing another glance at the man who is now busy putting off the small fire while whistling a melody, “because this tail that’s a part of me, is now a burden. When I’m down there, in the company of my brothers and sisters and others of my kind, I feel jittery and have no energy to sing or play with anyone. I keep on sighing my days away, wondering what it’s like where he lives and if he would like me if I went and introduced myself. Do you think that my thoughts will ever reach him? Should I try shouting them out loud and hope that the wind will carry my words to him?”

The Moon sends a small wave towards Kyungsoo to caress his fin, as the tide is her only mean to offer some comfort to the troubled boy whom she’s looked after since he was barely twelve (he’s seventeen now) and favours over other sea creatures, including merfolk. Kyungsoo carries the colours of the deep sea and the night sky on his tail, and his skin is so pale that he might as well be the Moon’s long-lost offspring. She fancies the thought, but has never voiced it out loud.

“I’m concerned that his patience and interest might run out before I build up the courage to approach him.” The boy’s shoulders slump forward as a sigh slips past his lips, his gaze lingering on the man for a second before turning towards the Moon. “I don’t wish to stay here and wait for that day to come. I refuse to let that happen. Please, tell me, is there a way that I can be with him and finally put my heart to rest?”

“Is that what your heart wants, child? Do you wish to be with him, regardless of the means?” The Moon asks warily, letting her light fall upon the boy’s face and draw sparkles from his clear eyes when he nods.

“I’ve forgotten how to feel happy under the sea, but I think that being on earth might help me remember.”

Alas, there is a way but the Moon would rather spare Kyungsoo from putting himself through it and all its implications. Why would a child of the tide choose the open land over the depths of the sea? Ah, but his happiness is at stake here and she wonders, what if this is the only way for him to grasp and secure what she’ll never have? It’s with this thought in mind that the Moon tells the boy about how she once met a mermaid who fell in love with a human Prince and traded her tail and tongue for legs and a chance to win his heart, but unfortunately her feelings weren’t reciprocated and the morning following his marriage to someone else, she became sea foam.

She warns him of the risks and tries to dissuade him from abandoning the sea, but Kyungsoo insists on hearing the rest of the story and begs for her to tell him how to achieve mortality.

“Sea folk like you are empty shells, whereas humans are like oysters that hide a precious secret within themselves.” The Moon says, a little higher up in the sky.

“Like a pearl?”

“Yes, except it’s shapeless and possibly much more precious than all the pearls in the sea. It’s called a soul and, while their bodies are mortal, souls aren’t; they live on even after they die, simply abandoning their vessel and either finding another one or ascending into the sky.”

Kyungsoo glances towards the empty shore and bites his bottom lip, his right hand coming up to rest atop his heart. “It’s beating so fast. Isn’t having a heart the same as having a soul?”

“No, my dear.” The Moon answers sadly, although she possesses neither.

“If I become human, will I get a soul, too?” They boy asks, clearly hopeful about the possibility of being with the object of his affection and of not being an empty shell anymore. Would the man like him more if he had a pearl of his own, like the oysters? “Please, do let me know what I ought to do to become human.”

The Moon waits until another cloud floats past her to speak up again with a clear, solemn voice that only Kyungsoo can hear. “There’s an old story that says that for a mermaid—or merman, in your case— to become mortal and earn yourself a soul, you must take another man’s life in the name of love. Murder shall stain your hands, but in exchange for the sacrifice you will be granted mortality and a pair of legs that will allow you to freely roam around earth alongside other humans. However, once you shed your tail there will be no going back and you won’t be able to return to the sea.”

“I can’t…come back? Ever?” Kyungsoo asks, earning himself the closest to a sympathetic grin from the Moon. As much as he yearns for happiness and love next to the mortal man, he can’t fathom not being able to return to his brothers and sisters to tell them about his adventures on earth.

“Never, unless it’s in the shape of sea foam.”

Kyungsoo swallows thickly as this new information settles in, pin-pricking at his cold skin like needles and making his heart heavy with fear and dread. He doesn’t want to take anyone’s life nor be locked out of the place he’s called home for the past seventeen years, but this might be his only chance to be with the man he loves. Ah, what should he do? He brings his hands up and presses them to his eyes, trying to squeeze out some tears to relieve the pain and tension wrecking his body, but nothing comes out. His shoulders slump forward and pale fingers thread through dark damp locks as he sobs dryly into the night, for the ones of his kind don’t only lack a soul—they have no tears, either.

Another week goes by and each day that passes adds on some more weight to Kyungsoo’s already heavy and troubled heart, sweeping away with his glee and interfering with his daily activities and his ability to enjoy the little things (like clam races and the complex dances of corals and algae), to the point of even affecting his singing. The metronome of his heart has fallen out of tempo and now resembles more a countdown timer, and Kyungsoo is worried about what might happen once it reaches zero. His heart hurts. Everything hurts.

“You’re out early today,” the Sun comments when a headful of wet dark locks breaks the calm surface of the sea below, the merman’s pale skin shimmering under the warm sunlight. “She isn’t even up yet.”

Kyungsoo covers his eyes with a hand as he directs his gaze towards the bright burning star on the sky, flashing a smile, “Mind if I wait for her, then?”

“I’ll be gone soon so tell her that I send my regards, if you may.”

“I shall.” Kyungsoo promises with a couple of nods for emphasis, climbing onto the rock where he’s spent the past nights pondering over what he ought to do. His hideout at plain sight offers protection from any curious gazes coming from the shore while also allowing him to observe the humans without getting caught by passing ships. Besides, it’s the perfect spot for him to chat with the Moon and try to clear his head. “How do you cope with not being able to be with her?”

The Sun chortles. “Are you asking me for advice? Normally, it’s her who people talk to.”

“I know her thoughts, but I’m curious about yours.” Kyungsoo says as he mentally lists the colours tie-dyeing the sky on this warm summer afternoon: there’s mostly blue, but also pink and golden and woven clouds. “Please.”

“I’d hurt her if we came too close.” The Sun says after a few minutes of silence, his light dimming as the time for setting down draws near. “She doesn’t have a light of her own whereas I’m burning all the time, hence we cannot be together in the sky, but I can still use that light to make her glow at night. That’s how I remind her that I’m here, even if she can’t see me.”

Kyungsoo lowers his gaze to his tail and begins tracing abstract shapes across the iridescent scales, thinking about the Sun’s words. Could he, too, let the object of his affection know of his existence without exposing himself or having to take anyone’s life? Maybe they could find a way, like the Sun and Moon that have managed to stretch their little game of tag for millions of years; they’d meet at night and count the stars in the sky while lying together on the fine sand near the bonfire the man always lit to stay warm, and then they’d bid farewell to each other at dawn with the promise of reuniting again when the Sun went down. The prospect of getting to spend time with the man that stole his heart is appealing but, how long could they make it work? How long would it take for the man to get bored of visiting the shore to see him, and tired of Kyungsoo’s limitations? What if one day he simply stopped coming and Kyungsoo never saw him again?

No. The thought alone of it happening makes Kyungsoo’s heart ache with such intensity that his body instinctively curls into itself in an attempt at alleviating the waves of sudden pain, and when he finally unfurls and looks up again he finds that the Sun is gone and the Moon is watching him from above. The beach is empty. There is neither driftwood burning nor a lonely man lying on the sand or smoking away the dusk, and Kyungsoo is afraid that the cogs have started to move and it’s too late to do anything.

“Mother,” he murmurs, for he is a child of the Moon and the tide as his dark tail, clear eyes, and pale skin showcased, “I don’t know what to do.”

He doesn’t want to play tag or hide-and-seek, or any kind of game; that method might’ve worked for the Sun and the Moon but he hasn’t got that much patience and he’s on a race against time. He doesn’t want to live without love, especially now that he’s found it, and he doesn’t want the burning ache in his heart to linger like a splinter that’s dug in too deep. He doesn’t want to spend his life swinging between ‘what ifs’ and endless regrets, drowning like those naïve men that his ancestors charmed with their sweet voices and led to their death. He doesn’t want any of those things, but his heart’s desires won’t come true for free.

“My child, you’ve become taciturn.”

Kyungsoo’s never been particularly obnoxious although he isn’t the quiet type either, but tonight he’s out of words and his loud heartbeat is doing all the noise; it beats and booms and falters and Kyungsoo dives back into the sea to silence it, daring for the first time to break his own rules and swimming past the rock formation, closer to the shore he’d been warned countless times to stay away from. He’s had enough.

Hesitation clouds his heart as he swims farther from the safety of home and closer to the shore, until the clear water is no longer able to conceal his body and the sandy bottom is within an arm’s reach, poking the top half of his head out of the water to scan his surroundings before fully emerging with a quiet gasp. He made it. A breathy chuckle falls from moist lips as Kyungsoo shifts to sit on the sand and playfully splashes some water about, lifting his gaze to the Moon as he pushes his dripping hair away from his face.

“I’m one step closer from being happy,” he murmurs, but the Moon doesn’t smile back. “Don’t worry. I’ll be very careful, I promise. I’m sure that he’ll understand my predicament and look after me, and together we’ll find a way for me to leave the sea and become part of his world.”

The Moon remains vigilant, her uncharacteristic silence rising a yellow flag inside Kyungsoo’s head that he ignores in favour of filling his lungs with the cool breeze that he’s so familiar with, tasting salt on the back of his tongue when he opens his mouth and lets a song flow out of it, mingling with the sounds of waves crashing and echoes of the past. It’s a song that his people has sung for centuries and, despite the words not being in any language spoken by humans, they can slither in their hearts and reach deeper than any song known on earth; Kyungsoo sings in the language of the sea that has been passed down from generation to generation, the one that his winged ancestors used to speak.

What he fails to remember, though, is that his own voice is a double-edged sword—enchanting, yet terribly deadly. It’s unclear whether merfolk are aware of it or not, but their voices aren’t meant to be heard above the surface of the water, for their sound is quite different from the one they make under it where it is sweet. No man has lived to tell the tale of the terrible screeching that follows when the spell breaks, or how it’s loud enough to make one’s hairs stand on edge and pierce through the heart of even the toughest man.

Had Kyungsoo been paying more attention to his surroundings instead of his singing and the sand beneath his palms, he would’ve noticed the fisherman dismounting his boat and walking over to him, dragging behind a worn fishing net. Daily exposure to the sunlight and sea salt has made his skin leathery and wrinkly and the dull and brittle hairs on his head have prematurely turned gray, too, and his protruding belly peeks out from underneath a white wife-beater stained with sweat and dirt. His feet make no sound as he approaches the singing merman from behind, enthralled by his voice and mystified by the dark fish tail he possesses instead of a pair of legs. Is it real, or should the man blame the beers he drank earlier for making him see things that are supposed to exist only in fairy tales and the imagination of tired sailors?

Kyungsoo’s song finally ends and he slowly lifts his gaze towards the Moon, and he’s about to ask her if she liked his performance when his ears pick up some noises coming from behind him and he freezes, his breath catching in his throat and heartbeat faltering. He thought he was alone but apparently such isn’t the case, and Kyungsoo is more than ready to flee–but he doesn’t. What if it’s the man that unknowingly stole the merman’s heart, who decided to show up at last?

“Hello?” He ventures as he slowly turns around to face the newcomer, but the person standing behind him isn’t the object of his affection and whom his heart yearns for; this is a man whose face he’s never seen before, and his eerie presence makes Kyungsoo’s blood run cold.

The fear filling his heart is akin to the one Kyungsoo experienced some years ago when he swam too far from home during one of his adventures, which resulted in him getting lost and coming face-to-face with the pitch-black abyss; he can’t tell whether he’s trembling due to being cold or terrified, though it’s probably a bit of both. Suddenly, dark engulfs everything when a large cloud floats in front the Moon, blocking its light and thus limiting Kyungsoo’s visibility. His first instinct is to dive back into the sea but here on earth he’s heavier and can’t move as freely and smoothly as he does underwater, and the realisation that he’s in trouble makes him regret all his choices until this moment. He shouldn’t have come here tonight.

Kyungsoo’s scream pierces the otherwise silent night when he finds himself tangled up in a net like the ones he’s seen men use to catch large amounts of fish. He tries to desperately explain to his captor that he’s made a mistake, pleading to be released and going as far as to promise the man to sing for him every night and even bring him pearls and other precious gems he’s been collecting for years, but his words meet deaf ears. Despair contorts the merman’s face and his large eyes are glazed over albeit devoid of any actual tears, and his screeches grow louder when the fisherman pounces on him and Kyungsoo ends up squished between the man’s heavy body and the sand, pulling at the net in hopes of ripping it apart and freeing himself.

“You’re a pretty little thing,” the man says, and Kyungsoo counts two missing teeth when he smiles. “Don’t resist. I’ll bring you home with me and take care of you, mm? I have a bathtub. You’ll be comfortable there.”

“Please…” Kyungsoo cries out, and his heart almost leaps out of his chest when the sound of the net tearing reaches his ears and his hand slips through a hole in it. It’s now or never, and all consequences be damned.

A train of expletives falls from the man’s lips when sharp nails sink into his flesh, leaving angry red marks on their wake as Kyungsoo drags them across his dirty face. Fear has morphed into rage and this time around the merman scratches hard enough to draw blood, using his remaining energy to harshly push the man off him. All the swimming has given Kyungsoo a sturdy upper body and an even stronger sense of survival, which compels him to fight back when the man grips his tail and drags him away from the water, droplets of fresh blood dripping onto the sand.

Kyungsoo twists his body until the man drops his tail with another curse in favour of wiping the sweat and blood off his face, and the merman promptly starts crawling back to the sea that he should’ve never left. 

Moonlight pours over him when the cloud finally drifts away and he cries out upon seeing the large shadow cast over him by his hunter, whose wounds don’t seem to have deterred him from taking a trophy home (read: abducting Kyungsoo and keeping him in a bathtub). His aquamarine eyes seek for advice in the Moon but she’s got none, for her pain is too overwhelming; had she known that the price of the merman’s curiosity would be his freedom and possibly his life, she would’ve done everything in her power to stop him from venturing to the shore.

_Splash._

Now that Kyungsoo is back in his element, he has the upper hand at last. There is no hesitation in his movements as he trips the man with a swish of his tail and pushes his head underwater, holding it down with both hands and whimpering quietly whenever a fist lands on his ribs or fingers grab at his neck, promptly shaking them off. After a minute or so, all struggling ceases and the man finally takes his last breath, his body spasming twice before it goes completely limp and the surface of the water returns to its usual calm. Contrariwise, Kyungsoo’s heart is beating wildly, and his fingertips are still stained red.

“Child,” the Moon calls after a minute of silence, “what have you done?”

Kyungsoo is livid. He pushes away the body with a cry before threading his fingers through dark tresses and pulling harshly at them, despair and guilt eating him up from the inside out as the realisation that he just murdered someone sinks in.

“I’m sorry.” He strains out, biting down hard on his bottom lip. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, my dear.”

“No, it’s not!” Kyungsoo shouts and shakes his head, rubbing at his dry eyes. He knows that it was a kill or be killed kind of situation, although that doesn’t mean that he’s alright with having taken someone’s life even if it was in an act of self-defense. He’s learned that humans are fragile, too, and neither all these years of evolution and genetic mutation nor Kyungsoo’s good nature have been enough to cancel out his violent siren nature. “I did something very bad. What if he had a family? I should’ve—”

“You did what you had to.” The Moon says firmly, raising her voice to get her point across. She’s having none of Kyungsoo’s pity for the man that wouldn’t have hesitated to hurt him, if given the chance. “Won’t you try to sleep some, child? I’ll take care of him.”

Kyungsoo frowns. “You don’t need to clean after my mess.”

“Do you already feel strong enough to do it?” Upon getting no verbal response from Kyungsoo, the Moon sends a wave in his direction to coax him into going home and letting her handle this. 

“I have a question, mother.” The young merman hesitates before rising his eyes and stained hands towards the Moon, poking his tongue out to wet his lips as he’s once again made aware of his thumping heart and naïve hopefulness to find something good amongst all the bad. “Back then, you said that by taking a man’s life I could attain an immortal soul and earn a place on earth. Well, I did. Is that enough for me to—”

“No, child.” The Moon cuts him off before he can Kyungsoo can finish his question, earning a disheartened look from the boy. “That was just some story I heard hundreds of nights ago, but it was unlikely to be true.”

Kyungsoo insists. “What about the mermaid that traded her tongue for legs and became sea foam after the Prince married someone else? Was her story a lie, too?”

“She made a deal with someone dangerous but they’re no longer around, and doing business with dark creatures is never the smartest move. It’s not worth it.” The Moon says, her voice deep and soothing like a caress to Kyungsoo’s cheek and a kiss to his forehead. Oh, what he wouldn’t give for her to hold him right now! “Please, go. You’ve dealt with enough for a night.”

For once, Kyungsoo doesn’t protest and spares one last glance at the man’s body before diving underwater and letting the darkness engulf him. He doesn’t return home, like the Moon suggested, because there’s still blood beneath his nails and sin has tainted him, and his heart is filled with guilt and the crippling fear that someone might’ve witnessed the incident with the fisherman. He should’ve thought twice before venturing out of the water, and he should’ve been more aware that his actions would inevitably have consequences he’d have to deal with. But, how could he have foreseen the bloody outcome of an apparently harmless visit to the shore?

Does sleep ever come to him throughout the remainder of the night? No, it doesn’t. Whenever he thinks he’s finally managed to bury his guilt and regret underneath layers of denial and naive hopefulness that a brighter and better tomorrow would arrive soon despite having his expectations shattered, everything comes back in waves of nausea and chills that make Kyungsoo curl into himself as he sheds nonexistent tears. Why wasn’t he born with a soul, like the man he loved and the one he killed? Why was he given a tail that bound him to the sea, instead of legs to explore the land he’d only heard of in stories?

Kyungsoo might remain soulless but he isn’t heartless, and the next day he finds himself going back to the shore despite the events of the night prior. The lack of sleep manifests on the dark purplish circles under his eyes and sluggish movements as he swims past a confused dolphin and a school of curious colourful fish, hesitating a beat before poking his head out of the sea of liquid gold courtesy of the Sun that’s about to set. The fisherman’s body is nowhere in sight and Kyungsoo is thankful for that, although he isn’t given enough time to even consider pondering over his whereabouts before some movement on the shore catches his attention and he gazes with intent in that direction, craning his neck to get a better view of it. 

Ah, when would he learn to ignore his burning curiosity, lest to get caught into any potentially dangerous situation like the one from last night? Kyungsoo’s intentions might be good and his knowledge of the sea and its creatures may be vast, but he’s still ignorant regarding men and the nature of their actions.

The sight of the man he loves brings joy and relief to his troubled heart, though it’s not long until confusion takes over and paints his features when he realises that he’s not alone—there’s a woman with him this time around. They’re walking hand in hand along the shore, swinging their arms and splashing some water about with their feet, and both are wearing grins on their faces. The woman is shorter than the man by at least a head and her long auburn hair flows with the breeze whenever it blows and threads through it; a long strapless yellow dress hugs her figure around the chest and hips and falls above her ankles, and she’s holding a pair of sandals in her free hand. She looks happy, and so does the man that’s walking beside her.

Who is this woman, and what is she doing with the object of Kyungsoo’s affection? He doesn’t understand anything, and the situation turns even weirder when the man’s steps halt and he goes down on one knee, pulling what looks like a small box from the pocket of his trousers. The woman clasps a hand over her mouth and nods fervently in response to something that the man just said, throwing her arms around his neck before connecting their lips into a kiss. Kyungsoo knows what kissing is and that it’s a common gesture to express affection, but he doesn’t understand why they’re doing it right now; what he does know, though, is that the man he loves is happy and he’d never look at him the same way that he’s looking at the woman in his arms.

Kyungsoo dares to swim closer to the shore and conceals his presence behind a big boulder, perking his large ears to try and catch fragments of the conversation between the two people laughing and twirling about without a care in the world, but the sound of waves crashing and his own loud heartbeat won’t let him hear anything. However, no words are needed for him to understand how much this woman means to the man he’s been watching from afar but alas, he will never have.

He looks at her like she hung the Moon on the night sky and like there are stars embedded into her eyes, and kisses her as if his life depends on it and this is the last thing he’ll ever do; he holds her in his arms like he never wants to let go, and Kyungsoo knows deep inside that such is exactly the case and there is nothing he can do to change the man’s heart. And he ponders: would he do it, if he was given the chance? Would he let his selfishness take over to guarantee his own happiness at the expense of someone else’s?

No. Kyungsoo may have siren blood running through his veins and be the reason that someone is dead, but his heart remains pure and the love he feels for the man is so genuine that he’s willing to give him and the woman he adores his blessings for them to have a long, happy life together. Oh, how bad could the pain be for someone like him who possessed a heart to love, albeit no tears to shed if it broke?

“It’s unlikely of you to be up here while I’m still out,” the Sun muses upon noticing the young merman, “but I’m not complaining, for you make quite a delightful companion and your presence is soothing. I can see why She holds you in such high esteem.”

Kyungsoo spares one last glance at the man and his sweetheart before turning to face the burning star sinking into the horizon and painting gold the surface of the water, flashing a small, sad smile. “I came to say good-bye.”

The Sun hums. “I never say good-bye to anyone because it implies that I won’t get to see them again. I rather say goodnight.”

“I’m afraid that this is good-bye, for me.” Another sigh falls from Kyungsoo’s lips as he shifts to face the setting sun, turning his back to the shore where he’s decided to abandon his heart and bury for good his unrequited first love. “Are you going to bed already?”

“Why, yes. Won’t you wait for the Moon to come out to greet her?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “Not today, no. I wouldn’t want to force unto her the melancholy and grief in my heart; they’re heavy, like the anchors of the ships sailing by, and she needs to be up in the sky. She belongs there, with you, whereas the deep sea is my home. I don’t want to drag her down with me.”

“I go down every night and she does every morning, yet we rise again when our time to be up comes. We bid each other farewell and then wait, because that’s all we can do. I’ve heard that the tide rises at night, too.” The Sun says, its voice deep and raspy. “As a child of both, you will rise again. For now, though, it’s okay to grief.”

The Sun is much wiser than he thought, Kyungsoo learns, but he feels so empty right now that he catches himself wondering if it’s possible to go to bed and become sea foam overnight, like the mermaid from the story that the Moon told him. He doesn’t want that fate, but maybe turning into sea foam wouldn’t be such a terrible way to part. 

“It’s getting late and I shall go.” The Sun announces after another moment, and Kyungsoo spots the Moon beginning to make its way up into the multicoloured sky. “Goodnight, kid.”

“Goodnight to you, too.” Kyungsoo takes a breath and closes his large aquamarine eyes as the Sun is swallowed by the horizon and the day becomes night, cold, salty water filing his mouth as he screams in frustration and the sea he’s called home and is bound to live in welcomes him back into its arms, bubbles breaking the surface of the water. 

Good-bye.

(Or rather, bad-bye?)

 

~*~


	2. 2/2

~*~

 

It takes five years for Kyungsoo to build up enough courage to poke the top half of his head out of the calm surface of the water, his dark hair sticking to his forehead and pale skin glistening under the warm sunlight. That would sum up to approximately 1, 825 days that he’s spent vehemently avoiding the shore he used to frequent in the past, which witnessed the development of a love story five summers ago. Sadly, the happy ending was never meant for Kyungsoo, as he was a mere side character, but at least the object of his affection found true love in the end and had his happily ever after.

Kyungsoo is twenty-two years old now, and both his body and mind have undergone a series of changes that age brought along: not only had he matured and expanded his knowledge about the world and the way it worked, but he’d started to look less than a teenager and more like the young adult he was becoming. The burning curiosity that got him in trouble in the past is still part of his personality, but now he knows better than to try to sate it by acting recklessly and chasing impossible goals. 

Understandably so, love is at the top of the list of the things he’s decided to give up on. 

While he does believe in it, he’s just reached the conclusion that love isn’t meant for him and thus trying to turn it into something attainable would be a complete waste of time and energy and the idea of all his efforts resulting in another heartbreak is one he doesn’t find appealing in the slightest—moreover, he doesn’t think he could endure going through that again.

The first question that crosses his mind when he emerges from underwater is: does the man still go to the beach every night, or is that no longer necessary to help him clear his head and soothe his heart? Kyungsoo wouldn’t be surprised if the arms of the man’s lover had become his new favourite spot for stargazing, or if he’d found her eyes more mesmerising than the countless sunsets he witnessed, unaware of the pair of round aquamarine eyes fixed on him while he looked at the sky.

Granted, he still comes out at night to talk to the Moon about his day and to gossip about the life underwater, and he’s immensely grateful to her for not questioning him about the incidents from five years ago or suggesting he tried to overcome his fears by confronting the ghosts of the past. What would be in it for him, anyway? He was an infatuated fool who didn’t take enough precautions and as a result ended up taking the life of a fisherman who stopped by to listen to his song; it had been in self-defense, but none of that would’ve happened if he’d listened to the Moon’s advice and stayed away from the shore and the humans she warned him about, but then he’d still be wrongly believing that all men were good.

“You’re out early today.” The Sun points out when he spots Kyungsoo’s dark head, his deep voice tinged with amusement. He and Kyungsoo have become closer and, even though their relationship will never be like the one the young merman and the Moon have, he’s content to have earned his trust and a place in his heart. “I saw a Dalmatian earlier. It’s a shame you weren’t here, though, because it was magnificent.”

Kyungsoo smiles and pushes his dripping hair away from his eyes, raising a brow. “What’s a Dalmatian?”

“It’s a dog breed,” Says the Sun, happy to be able to teach the curious merman something new everyday. “I think you’d find it fascinating.”

“You’re always saying that.” Kyungsoo comments with a chuckle that fades out with a sigh, glancing over his shoulder and craning his neck, becoming suddenly aware of his frantic heartbeat as he gazes towards the shore. As expected, there is neither a bonfire nor a man lying next to it, but this time around there is no heartache for him to deal with, and even the fisherman’s shadow seems to have decided to give him a break today. “Some things are scary rather than interesting, and there are many dangers we don’t know of out there, in the human world.”

Sighing, the young merman leans back and extends his arms at his sides as he soaks up on some sunlight (his skin had become a shade paler from all the time spent underwater), closing his eyes as he allows himself to become weightless and the gentle waves to lull him, splashing some water about with his silver-streaked fin when he swishes his tail to keep himself afloat. It’s been a warm summer day and the Sun will be setting soon, so he might as well enjoy the remnants of light before night falls and the Moon comes out to take her place on the sky. 

“You’re all grown up, now.” The Sun comments after a moment of peaceful quiet, drawing a chuckle from Kyungsoo’s lips. “Regardless, I’d still advice you to keep your eyes open and don’t let your guard down. Seems like you’re not the only one who likes to bend the rules and push the limits.”

Alarmed, Kyungsoo opens his eyes and prepares to flee if the situation calls for it, but all he can see is some splashing near the shoreline. Merfolk have better vision than humans, hence it doesn’t take long for him to make out what the oddly shaped creature moving towards him is: a man. His heart plummets to his stomach and suddenly there’s a bitter liquid crawling up his throat as snippets of his unfortunate encounter with the fisherman flash in his head, his breathing becoming ragged and body shaking.

He’s about to turn around and swim away when the echo of a cry reaches his ears and the despair it carries paralyzes him, and the merman earns a harsh reprimand from his inner self when he finds himself fearing for the man’s life. He shouldn’t get involved, considering he had nothing to do with whatever’s happening, yet he can’t help but worry that the sea might be too much for an earth creature like him to handle and it’ll result in his body eventually losing the battle against it. Just like merfolk like him, the sea was beautiful yet treacherous and would mercilessly take the lives of anyone that dared push the boundaries and try to conquer it.

Why were men so blind and stubborn? Couldn’t they see that the only possible outcome to their reckless acts was an inexorable and painful death? Hadn’t centuries of history taught them anything at all? There wasn’t a thing such as men of the sea, like some so proudly chose to call themselves—just silly men who believed to have some sort of right over something that would never belong to them.

Despite being aware of all this, Kyungsoo decides that letting an innocent drown is not what he’s going to do.

Within seconds he’s speeding towards the man, using the strength of his lower body to propel himself through the water, hoping to make it in time before it’s too late for him to be of any help and he’s scarred by another unfortunate incident like the one from five years ago. He speeds up, and then—

Kyungsoo barely manages to stop before he collides against the man he’d come to rescue, who is very much alive and kicking and just as shocked to have encountered him. He’d never stop to consider the possibility of the two of them bumping like this into each other and he’s at a loss of how to react to the situation and what to do; he’s at least glad to be in the open sea, where he can go anywhere he wants and knows plenty of places to hide from the man in case he decides to go after him. That would be a stupid thing to do, so Kyungsoo hopes that he has enough common sense to return to the safety of home, and he would do the same.

Two large bubbles and a few smaller ones leave the man’s mouth and float to the surface when he foolishly does an attempt at talking underwater as he points at Kyungsoo´s beautiful blue tail covered in iridescent scales, his eyes going wide as he clasps a hand over his mouth and nose and begins to frantically kick his feet and flail his arms about. It takes Kyungsoo a second to connect the dots and realise that the man has inhaled some of the water he’s so familiar with, and he will drown unless he’s brought back to the surface so he can breathe. Naturally, it’s the merman who takes it upon himself to fulfill the task, hooking his arms around the man’s armpits and locking his wrists over his chest before he starts to swim upwards, struggling a bit with the added weight. 

The man inhales sharply as soon as he pokes his head out of the salty water and then coughs to clear his lungs, filling them with precious air instead, and finally acknowledges the round aquamarine eyes glaring at him. Suddenly, he remembers everything. 

“You have a tail!” He cries out, almost sending the poor merman into a state of panic because he didn’t think that those would be the first words to leave his mouth.

“And you were drowning!” Kyungsoo returns before nervously glancing around to make sure that no one is around, and he thinks he can hear a faint chuckle coming from above. The Sun must be having a fieldtrip.

The man huffs, incredulous, and points accusingly at the merman. “I thought you were the one drowning!”

Kyungsoo wants to protest and question this human’s sanity because how could someone like him, a literal creature of the sea and child of the Moon and the tide, be at the verge of drowning? He has every intention to point out the flaw in the man’s reasoning and scold him for his recklessness (and he surely was one to talk), but everything goes down the drain when they lock gazes and Kyungsoo finds himself staring into a pair of almond-shaped eyes whose brown irises remind him of burning driftwood, warm sand and sunrises painting the sky orange, pink and yellow.

“Well, I wasn’t.” Kyungsoo says at last in a quiet voice, trying his best to not let himself be too distracted by the way the young man’s golden skin glistens under the amber light pouring over him as the Sun finally begins to sink in the horizon, taking with it some of Kyungsoo’s fears and doubts regarding this seemingly harmless human. However, he now knows better than to let his guard down in its entirety and thus decides to swim away and head back home without an explanation to his actions, figuring that he doesn’t owe one, anyway.

Behind him, he can hear the man’s shouts of “please don’t go, come back!”, but they’re soon muffled by the water and bubbles in his ears and the voice of the fisherman resonating in his head as he told Kyungsoo how he was going to take him home and make him live in a bathtub. He shouldn’t trust humans. He shouldn’t be pondering over “what if not all of them are the same?”, because he knows it’s mere wishful thinking and he’s not a child anymore. He shouldn’t let his burning curiosity take over and push him to do anything reckless and foolish again, but he knows it’s a lost battle as soon as he gets home and all he can think about is about returning to the surface the next day. 

He’s got everything under control, after all, thus one more trip there shouldn’t hurt…right?

When Kyungsoo pokes his head out of the water the next day about an hour before the Sun sets, he’s surprised to see a handful of humans running along the shore and riding the waves crashing on it by standing on some sort of board that the merman had never seen before, since this spot isn’t frequented by humans. Their presence is unexpected and it makes Kyungsoo ponder whether coming here is worth the risk or he’s just being reckless again, especially because from his spot he can’t tell if the man he met yesterday is here with the other humans.

After a moment of deep thinking, Kyungsoo decides to take a leap of faith and submerges below the surface again, swimming towards the rock formation he claimed as his hideout to watch the shore five summers ago, except this time around he vows to be more careful and to not let himself be spotted by anyone. He just wants to see the man with the beautiful brown eyes and gleaming skin once more, and then he’ll stop behaving like the irresponsible and careless teenager he used to be, because the last thing he wants is to get in trouble again and for his recklessness to result in another death.

It’s a luck that the predominant colour on his body is blue (his hair, tail and eyes are all different shades of it, and even his pale skin possesses cool undertones that make it appear to be a light blueish grey) otherwise he would’ve had a harder time concealing his presence, but he easily blends with his surroundings.

Now, back to the humans and their weird ways of…having fun? Kyungsoo assumes that such is the purpose of fearlessly delving into the open sea to mount the waves, and his theory is confirmed by the faint sounds of laughter and clapping coming from the shore. He’s still at a safe distance from it, albeit close enough to be able to tell that the small group of people is formed by two females and three males, and all of them are wearing colourful swimming gear and seem to be having a good time.

Kyungsoo swishes his tail and can’t ignore the slight pang of jealousy that strikes his heart when he sees the females starting to run along the shore as two of the males chase them, probably as some sort of game he’d never be able to take part in because he doesn’t have any legs. His only chance at getting a pair of props for himself to walk on would be to turn to dark magic, but he isn’t desperate enough to go such lengths. Besides, he’d kind of miss the sea if he were to ever leave it.

“Hello there,” a voice says, startling the poor merman who immediately turns around to face its owner, and he isn’t as shocked as he thought he would be when his eyes fall on the man from yesterday. He’s sitting on a board like the ones the other humans were using to surf (naturally, Kyungsoo ignores that what they’re doing is called this), his legs dangling at either side of it and head lolled to the side, damp medium brown locks falling across his forehead. _A child of the Sun._ “Call it a hunch or fate or whatever you please, but I had the feeling that we’d meet again.”

After a few moments of silent thinking and staring, Kyungsoo decides that coming back was a terrible mistake because now that he’s seen the man again, his heart is begging him not to leave and hide from his newfound source of light. The young merman has always liked bright things, after all, and this human male is drawing him in with a force he’d never experienced before, not even five years ago when he thought he was in love with that other man—looking back, that crush seems all kinds of ridiculous and pointless to him, now. He wasn’t really thinking back then, huh?

“I must go,” the merman declares although it’s not what he wants, avoiding the man’s gaze at all costs as he tucks a few strands of dark hair behind his ear, but immediately covers it again when he becomes self-conscious of it’s shape. Why did he ever think he could be considered beautiful by anyone, when he was clearly nothing but a mons—

“I thought you were leaving.” The man comments when the other doesn’t move, pulling Kyungsoo out of his thoughts.

“I am.”

The man smiles. “Are you, really?”

“Yes!” Kyungsoo whines, much to his dismay, because that wasn’t the sound he intended to make. “Go back to your friends. Good-bye.”

“Wait, wait.” The man calls, and Kyungsoo finds himself obliging. “Did you intend to go like this, without telling me your name?”

Kyungsoo lifts his eyes and feels that strange tug on his heart again, one he isn’t familiar with and scares him beyond words. What does it mean? Is it a good or bad thing? Is he dying? 

“Because you must have one, right?” The man insists and ruffles his hair, and Kyungsoo’s heart jumps at the sight of the most dazzling smile he’s ever seen. Yes, it’s even brighter and more beautiful than the one he saw on that woman’s face five summers ago, when he decided to give up on the absurd idea of finding love in a man he could never have. “Though I could always call you Pretty Eyes, if you prefer.”

These words travel straight to the merman’s heart and make it beat twice as fast, the sudden influx of endorphins and the rush of blood causing a faint blush to blossom across his pale cheeks and extend to the tip of his ears. He should’ve left when he had the chance.

“There is nothing special about my eyes,” he protests, dropping his gaze to the surface of the water though he quickly averts it when he realises that he can still see the man’s reflection there. “I have a name, certainly! If you wanted to know it, then you should’ve introduced yourself before asking for mine. Does your kind know nothing about common etiquette?”

The man throws his head back as he laughs, and Kyungsoo spots a small white star etched into the tender skin behind his left ear when he dares peer up at him. “You’re right about etiquette, but terribly wrong about your eyes. They’re an unique shade –somewhere between blue and green, I think—that you won’t find on earth no matter how hard you look for it, and they possess such depth that makes one feel like you’re staring into the ocean itself. As for myself, my name is Jongin.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t know what to do with all the compliments he just received from someone he basically just met, and the first thought that crosses his mind is that the man is lying. Why else would he tell him so many beautiful things? Moreover, why isn’t he scared of what he is? There are so many questions swirling around his head and all of them are new, all different from the ones that haunted him five summers ago. He can’t say that he dislikes this twist of events, though, but he’s afraid of what might happen if he allows himself to open to this man and let him in after he’s spent the past years building a wall around his heart to protect it from getting further broken. 

“Like I said, you can keep your name to yourself if you prefer,” Jongin says, shrugging a shoulder. “But then you’d have to deal with me calling you Pretty Eyes all the time.”

“Are all human men as ridiculous as you are?” He asks, the voice in his head scolding him for staying when he should have left as soon as he saw the man. While Kyungsoo isn’t entirely opposed to the idea of being complimented on a regular basis, he would much rather be called by the name given to him by his mother when he was born. “Kyungsoo. That’s what you should call me.”

Jongin hums, “Kyungsoo, with the pretty eyes. I’ll remember that.”

The merman continues staring at the man before him, noticing how his ears are round and soft instead of pointy like his own, and spends maybe a little too long studying his legs. They’re long and toned, probably as result of all the swimming and surfing and some other physical activity he must do on earth, and Kyungsoo barely manages to stop himself before he’s reaching out to touch.

“I must go,” Jongin says, surprising Kyungsoo. “My friends are waiting for me and I still have to drop off everyone before heading home.” The disappointment must be terribly obvious on Kyungsoo’s face, before the man immediately adds, “I’ll return tomorrow, though, and I’ll be by myself. It’s an open invitation, of course, so…you know where to find me if you decide to come.”

An open invitation from the human male to meet him, huh? Is he out of his mind?

“Do you know what I am?” Kyungsoo asks out of the blue when Jongin makes a move to leave, effectively stopping him. “I could tear you apart if I wanted. I could drown you if you ever hurt me. I could— “

“I know.” Jongin says calmly, unfazed by the threats although he’s no longer smiling. There is something akin to sadness in his eyes that Kyungsoo chooses to ignore for his own sake. “I’ll be around tomorrow.”

No further words are exchanged before the man swims back to the shore where he reunites with his friends, and eventually they all leave just as the Sun sets and bids goodnight to his nightly counterpart as she ascends to the sky and takes over watching the world from above. She scans the surface of the water, searching for her dear child whom he loves as if he were her own, but there are no signs of his presence. Maybe he isn’t in the mood for talking tonight or the events of the day left him exhausted and he decided to go to bed early, she reasons, but she would surely think differently if she knew about Kyungsoo’s encounter with the human male.

“Mother,” the merman would murmur hours later from the makeshift haven he put together inside a cave he came upon long ago, curled up into a giant clam shell with his tail bent and fingers caressing a black pearl as he tried to collect his thoughts, “I still don’t know what to do.”

 

 

Despite his heart’s insistence to return to the surface and meet with the human male, Kyungsoo decides to be cautious for once and stay home, just like he should’ve done five years ago. However, he can’t seem to be able to shake off the haunting sensation that his decision isn’t the right one and he’s missing out on something big—probably bigger than himself.

 

 

It’s been barely two days since Kyungsoo last visited the surface and he already misses terribly feeling the Sun on his skin and the breeze ruffling his hair, and to top it all off he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Jongin. Did he come back like he said he would? And, if he did, was he disappointed to find that no one was there? Foolish human! Does he not know that creatures like him couldn’t be trusted? Has he never heard of sirens and their gruesome ways of killing men? A song is all it would take for Kyungsoo to enchant him with his voice and lure him into the ocean to his death—but with what purpose? Was taking the fisherman’s life not enough for Kyungsoo? Siren blood does run through his veins, but that shouldn’t dictate his behaviour or how he ought to carry himself through life, despite what everyone else said. What did they know about humans, anyway, besides the fact that they couldn’t breathe underwater like them, and possessed a pair of legs instead of a fish tail?

Fuelled by both his hunger for knowledge and guilt, Kyungsoo swims up to the surface that afternoon and maps the shore with his eyes from his spot behind the rock formation nearby, looking for any signs of human presence on the sand but all he finds are some seashells and sea weed scattered about. He shouldn’t be disappointed that Jongin isn’t here, considering it was him who didn’t show up on the first place, yet he can’t help but feel somewhat sad and embarrassed to have even allowed himself to be hopeful about something that was clearly wrong and against everything he knew.

A merman befriending a human male? Please!

“Hey, Pretty Eyes.” 

Kyungsoo’s breath hitches in his throat when he gets splashed but rather than being scared, he’s relieved to see that Jongin’s smile is still as dazzling and vibrant as it was when they bumped into each other a few days ago. If Kyungsoo holds the sea in his eyes, then the Sun shines out of Jongin’s mouth whenever he smiles.

“I told you not to call me that.” The merman protests with a light huff as he turns around to face the human, splashing him back. “What are you doing here, earthling?”

“I was waiting,” Jongin says without missing a beat, shrugging a shoulder. “You weren’t here the other day so I’ve been lurking around to see if you came back. At first I was worried that something might’ve happened to you but then I realised that you had simply bailed out on me.”

Kyungsoo is stunned by this revelation, not having expected to hear that Jongin had been coming here for the sake of seeing him again, and it isn’t long until his initial guilt melts away and is replaced by something that he would later identify as elation.

“I’m not supposed to come close to humans,” Kyungsoo explains as he twirls, cocking his head. “How come you’re not scared of me? Aren’t I just a myth among your people?”

The brunette hums in thought for a moment then shifts to drape himself across the surfboard, lying onto his stomach with his arms folded to cushion his head, which he props atop them. “You are more than that. Mermaids are quite popular among children, especially girls, and in fairy tales. Once I even watched a documentary where they tried to debunk the alleged claims of sightings of your kind by sailors and fishermen, where scientist explained that they’d actually seen manatees and seals.”

“Do you think I look like a manatee?” 

“No, no.” Jongin answers right away with a light chuckle, shaking his head. “You’re nothing like our depictions of your kind. I didn’t know that there were male mermaids. I grew up thinking that all of them were pretty girls with very long hair and fish tails that spent their days playing with the fish and singing.”

This makes Kyungsoo frown, although he isn’t angry. Mermaids were more visually appealing than mermen, after all, hence he isn’t too surprised that humans mistakenly believed that his kind was exclusively made of females. Besides, the sirens had been the careless ones that made themselves known for luring sailors to their death though their singing, and mermaids had been responsible for a fair amount of disappearances and deaths themselves.

“There are males among merfolk, and we’re called mermen.” He explains calmly, though he’s secretly happy to be able to teach someone about his people and his world. “While we do enjoy music and other recreational activities, we also go to school to further our education and perfect a craft, and we have our own system of politics and thriving economy. Contrary to the misconception that your people have believed for centuries and accepted as truth, we are a complex civilization in constant evolution.”

Jongin stares at the merman in awe for a moment before he cracks up into giggles, running a hand through his hair to push it out of his face. Kyungsoo can’t recall having ever seeing a human this close (he never even got to clearly see the face of the man he crushed on five summers ago), and he wonders if they’re all as beautiful as Jongin or if he’s the exception.

“I feel so ignorant, now.” The human says once he’s calmed down enough, looking back at Kyungsoo. “If people knew all these things, they—”

“No,” Kyungsoo cuts in, putting some distance between him and Jongin as he wills his heart to slow down. “You can’t tell anyone about me. You mustn’t! If you do, I’m going to have to kill you and I promise to make it extremely slow and painful.”

This time around the threat is real and Kyungsoo will do whatever it takes to keep himself and his kind safe, although he’d much rather not have to take anyone’s life (especially Jongin’s) to get his point across. He’s expecting the human to freak out and either curse at him or flee, but all Jongin does is purse his lips and hum thoughtfully, once again surprising the merman by staying composed even when faced with the possibility of an unpleasant death if he ever opened his mouth and betrayed Kyungsoo’s trust.

“Okay, me and my big mouth promise to keep your existence a secret.” He finally says after a long moment of silence, lifting a hand and showing his palm to Kyungsoo as if to emphasise his words. “I guess it makes sense why you’d rather remain a myth than come forth as real. Humans can be huge jerks and would treat you like subjects for their experiments rather than sentient beings.” He pauses, heaving out a sigh. “How come you don’t mind me knowing about you, though?”

Kyungsoo thinks of the pull he felt in his heart when they met and how Jongin’s smile reminded him of the Sun, and decides that those are things he doesn’t need to know. Before he can come up with an answer, though, Jongin sits up on the surfboard and glances towards the shore, then back at Kyungsoo.

“Time for me to go. I promised Koko I’d take her out for a walk today.”

Kyungsoo blinks and swims closer to the surfboard, hesitantly reaching out to grab it. “Koko?”

“My dog.” The human says with a smile, and Kyungsoo tries to ignore his heart telling him not to let go. “She’s a two-year old Dalmatian and she’s probably the sweetest dog you’ll ever come across, though I doubt you’ve met a lot of dogs.”

“A Dalmatian.” Kyungsoo repeats and he swears he can hear the Sun giggling again. “Will you be here tomorrow?”

The question catches both off guard and Kyungsoo immediately pulls away, cheeks burning from the embarrassment and gaze cast downwards.

“No, I won’t. It’s my niece’s birthday party, you see, and I can’t miss it.” Jongin explains softly, and his voice alone is enough to soothe Kyungsoo’s nerves and crippling fear to have messed up everything. If it’s family business then he won’t get in the way. “But I’ll be here the day after. I convinced my friends to go to the neighbouring beach where waves are bigger, so you don’t have to worry about them coming here.”

Kyungsoo frowns. “Why would you do that?”

“Well,” this time it’s Jongin’s turn to blush, and Kyungsoo would’ve missed it if he hadn’t been paying enough attention to him, “I didn’t want them to know about you. I guess it sounds selfish put that way, but—” 

“If you’re not here the day after tomorrow, don’t bother ever coming back.” Kyungsoo says with a hint of playfulness in his voice as he reluctantly moves further away from the board, tucking his hair behind his ear before waving him off.

The Moon comes out a moment later to find Kyungsoo draped over a flat rock with a smooth surface, swishing his tail about as he gazes longingly at the shore, but this time around he doesn’t look disappointed that there is no bonfire burning or a man laying on the sand. It’s the smile etched across his face that compels the Moon to ask for the reason behind it, even if the answer might be something she’d rather not hear.

“What are you doing, child?”

Kyungsoo looks up and is eyes are so bright tonight that the Moon can see herself reflected on them. “I’m trying to imagine what Jongin’s Dalmatian looks like.”

 

~*~

 

Jongin does return the day after tomorrow. Kyungsoo learns what candy is when the human brings some he got from his niece, and they spend a great part of the afternoon trying them and laughing at the funny faces they make whenever they come across a sour one. He also makes Jongin promise to get him cake sometime because he’s never had any before and he’s curious to taste it, especially after the human’s detailed description of strawberry angel food cake, his favourite.

“What do you mean you’ve never had strawberries? Are you for real?” Jongin asks in a high-pitched voice and pauses from collecting seashells, earning himself a glare from the merman whose upper body is draped over his surfing board while his tail remains hidden underwater. They found the remnants of an abandoned pier earlier while looking for a place to rest where they wouldn’t be seen by anyone, and had since then called dibs on it as _their_ spot. “Don’t give me that look, Pretty Eyes. I admit that I didn’t think that question through and I’m sorry.”

Kyungsoo isn’t offended at all by the human’s slip, but rather intrigued by all the wonderful food he had in his world; besides all the different kinds of fruit and vegetables, they had sweet things like cake, spicy like peppers, sour like lemons and limes, and bitter like coffee. Turned out that humans also ate animals, which Kyungsoo strongly disapproved of, and he vowed to never put in his mouth anything that had once belonged to the sea. 

(“Why would I eat my friends?! What kind of monster would do that?” He’d ask to an amused Jongin, who simply offered him another candy to shut him up.)

 

~*~

 

Throughout the following days Jongin teaches Kyungsoo about the human world, bringing books with photographs for him to look at, as well as more strange foods that the merman had never heard of and was eager to try:

On Wednesday, they have fruit tart while Jongin rants about the subway and how annoying people is, and Kyungsoo listens attentively while popping pieces of fruit into his mouth. He doesn’t have much to say, since he knows nothing about how the human world works, but subways sound scary and complicated. Fruit tart, on the other hand, is delicious and Kyungsoo is sad that they don’t have anything like it at home so he could have it all the time, but then changes his mind when he thinks of all the weight he’d put on. Jongin is kind enough to give him all his strawberries, even though they’re his favourites.

On Thursday, Jongin brings noodles and teaches Kyungsoo how to hold the chopsticks and eat with them, and ends up rolling on the sand with tears in his eyes from laughing so much at the merman’s fruitless attempts at picking up some noodles with the strange utensils. When Kyungsoo eventually grows frustrated, Jongin takes it upon himself to feed him despite his endless protests, and the merman reluctantly agrees because he’s hungry and he doesn’t want to waste any food. Besides, this is the first time that someone does something like this for him. The noodles aren’t supposed to be sweet but they somehow taste like it.

Jongin doesn’t come on Friday, so Kyungsoo spends the afternoon thinking of what he can do to show him how grateful he is for his friendship. He hasn’t told Jongin yet about the fisherman and the man he fell in love with and how he unknowingly broke his heart, but he thinks that the deep wounds have started to heal already thanks to his kindness. Do humans have powers, too? Is Jongin a natural healer? Kyungsoo mentally goes through all the songs he learned when he was younger and considers singing for Jongin as a token of gratitude, but then remembers the doom he brought upon himself when he sang to love one night, thinking that he was alone, only for his adventure to result in a fisherman’s death and getting his own heart shattered to pieces. He decides not to sing. 

On Saturday, Kyungsoo arrives at the abandoned pier fifteen minutes early, looking nervous and slightly flushed. The Sun is quick to notice, of course, and decides to strike a conversation with the merman to help him chase away the uneasiness he seems to have brought along today.

“I know I’m early,” Kyungsoo says before the Sun can utter a word, “so save it.”

The Sun smiles. “Then let’s skip the unnecessary questions and tell me why.”

“I’m nervous and couldn’t stand spending another minute underwater.” Kyungsoo explains, pausing to sigh before producing a small bag from the satchel bag he’s carrying, and then holds out the object for the Sun to see. “I made this for Jongin. The chain I used is pure gold, see? The Moon said that humans were like oysters, hiding a treasure within, so I put together a pendant with a seashell and a pearl. I wanted to thank him for being so nice to me and teaching me about his world, and for not trying to take me away to live in a bathtub. Do you think he’ll like it?”

“I think he’ll love it,” says the Sun, shining a bit brighter just for Kyungsoo. “What is the treasure that humans have within themselves?”

Kyungsoo stares wistfully at the necklace dangling from his fingers for a moment, reaching with his other hand to caress the black pearl with the pads of his fingertips. “They have a soul. The Moon said they were like pearls, hence I’m giving my favourite one to my favourite human. I know he’ll take care of it, because he has a beautiful soul, too. I can’t see it, but I know it.”

On Sunday, Jongin brings his dog. It’s a lot bigger than Kyungsoo imagined and he’s initially reluctant to come closer despite the collar secured around the animal’s neck and the leash connecting it to Jongin’s hand, but after ten minutes of constant reassurance from the human that everything would be okay he finally agrees to come meet Koko.

“W-what is she doing?” Kyungsoo asks in a voice barely above a whisper when the Dalmatian starts sniffing him, his cheeks turning pale and eyes going wide. “Jongin…?”

“She’s getting to know you and making sure you’re no threat to either of us. I know you’re not having a fun time right no but just endure this a little longer, mm? It’ll get better.” Jongin is seated beside Kyungsoo, a hand gripping the end of the leash and another placed on Koko’s chest to hold her in place, gauging each of the merman’s reactions to his first encounter ever with a dog. “Oh.”

“Oh? What does that mean?” Kyungsoo asks in an alarmed tone when the Dalmatian emits a whimper and bumps her head against his side. “What now?”

Jongin laughs in response and scratches his canine friend behind her ears, kissing the top of her head. “She obviously likes you! Could you pet her?”

Pet her?! Has Jongin lost his mind? This beast could bite off Kyungsoo’s arm in the blink of an eye, and he’s quite satisfied with the current condition of his limps, thank you very much. He opens his mouth to tell Jongin this but the words never roll off his tongue; instead, he opts for taking a moment to admire the human who has helped him glue back together the pieces of his heart and get over his fears.

Jongin’s skin isn’t golden like he thought but rather bronze, and his caramel hair has natural highlights due to the constant and prolonged exposure to the salty water and sunlight. He’s wearing jeans and a plain white shirt today, but Kyungsoo knows that beneath the latter are his freckled shoulders and collarbones, and that he has two moles on the left side of his torso, below the ribs. Jongin must’ve shaved today because the skin of his jaw is smooth, although Kyungsoo doesn’t really mind the stubble. A chain adorns his neck, too, and the merman’s heart skips a beat when his eyes land on the seashell and black pearl hanging from it.

“Who’s a good girl?” Jongin asks in a silly voice while playing with the dog, pulling Kyungsoo out of his thoughts and making a smile blossom across his face. “Come on, Pretty Eyes. Give her some pets.”

“I-I don’t know how.”

“Then I’ll teach you.” Before Kyungsoo can further protest, Jongin scoots closer to him and reaches for the merman’s hand with his own while holding Koko’s leash with the other, ignoring his whimpers and pleas to let him go. “Hey, it’s alright. Do you really think I’d have you do anything dangerous?”

The answer is no. They may not have known each other for long but Kyungsoo knows in his heart that Jongin would never do anything to harm him, and if he says that petting his Dalmatian is completely safe then it must be. Jongin guides his movements with care and holds his hand while Koko sniffs it some more until she deems it safe to let him touch her, and Kyungsoo refrains from shouting in glee when he’s finally courageous enough to rest his hand on her hand and slide it down her neck, earning himself an appreciative lick in return.

“Did you see that?” He asks to a grinning Jongin who still hasn’t let go of his hand and continues guiding it over the dog’s spotted coat, and Kyungsoo suddenly realises that this is the closest they’ve ever been. “Hey, I think she does like me.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” says Jongin with a small smile of his own, drawing his hand back to Kyungsoo can properly pet Koko, running his fingers through the merman’s soft dark hair. This is an unexpected development but Kyungsoo can’t say that he’s unhappy with it, because he is certainly enjoying all Jongin’s attentions towards him even if he doesn’t fully understand the meaning behind them. “Is your skin naturally like this? It’s so pale and…blueish. Might be my imagination but it looks shimmery, too.”

“Mm. If you look closely, my hair has blue undertones as well.” Kyungsoo explains with a small giggle, letting Koko lick his fingers. “Sometimes the Moon and I joke about me being her offspring. Did you know that her movements affect the tides?”

“You talk to the Moon?”

“No, not to her. I talk _with_ her, and she always listens and gives good advice.” The merman says nonchalantly as he continues petting the Dalmatian, feeling more at ease now that he knows he won’t lose a limb. “The Sun is a good listener, too, but I’m not that close to him. Sometimes he shines so bright it hurts my eyes and burns my skin, so I often wait until he’s about to set to come out and wish him a good night, and then I spend hours chatting with the Moon.”

Jongin hums. “I’ve never tried talking to either of them. I mean, with them. I don’t think they’d reply even if I went on telling them about my day and asked a bunch of questions.”

“They always reply.” Kyungsoo says, gazing towards the horizon. “You just have to be quiet and listen.”

“Maybe if I had ears like yours…”

Kyungsoo huffs and turns his head to the side to look at Jongin, lightly scrunching his nose as he shakes his head. “Oh, I don’t think they’d suit you.”

They burst out laughing and their voices rise over the crashing waves and the caws of seagulls to the sky streaked with red and gold, the warm light of the setting Sun pouring over them and caressing their cheeks as the salty breeze ruffles their hair. After a few moments of hesitation, Kyungsoo leans against Jongin’s side and then uses his leftover courage to rest his head on the human’s shoulder as they watch Koko roll over the sand, and suddenly all the merman can hear is his pounding heart that keeps beating in a fast tempo, always in Do. However, it doesn’t resemble a countdown timer anymore and Kyungsoo’s love for music starts to resurface after being afraid of it for so long; the world is quiet and his heart is singing in a new language and hitting notes it’d never reached before underwater, but everything’s different when he’s on earth. Everything’s different when he’s with Jongin.

Later that night, Kyungsoo attempts to put a name to his feelings for the human. He tries to sing out loud the piece that his heart sang earlier, too, but his voice comes out unsteady and the notes are warped, and Kyungsoo decides to give it up before he grows frustrated and upset. Why can’t he sing? He should be able to, considering he’s been doing it for the most part of his life, so he can’t understand why he’s having so much trouble achieving something that should come to him as naturally as breathing and swimming.

“It’s good to see you again,” the waning Moon says once she spots Kyungsoo, though there is no reproach in her voice. “But you seem frustrated tonight. What’s occupying your mind, my child?”

The merman looks up with his eyebrows furrowed and lips puckered up into a pout, then decides that there is no point in hiding anything from the Moon. If nothing, she could help him figure out the strange changes he’s going through, and maybe even find the word he’s looking for to label his feelings under.

“I think I’ve lost my ability to sing, Mother. My heart sang a beautiful song earlier, but when I tried to put it into words it didn’t come out right.” The merman explains and heaves out a sigh, worrying his lower lip between his teeth afterwards. “There is no pain this time around, though, so don’t worry too much about that. There’s only happiness. I’m not afraid that Jongin might hurt me or take me away against my will, and he’s shown me snippets of his word and taught me how to eat noodles. He even let me pet his Dalmatian, and didn’t flinch away when I rested my head on his shoulder. I wouldn’t have known what true happiness was if it wasn’t for him.”

“Are you talking about the human kid?”

Kyungsoo laughs, his expression softening and muscles relaxing. “He’s not a kid, Mother! Actually, he’s older than me by a year.”

“To me, you are all kids, and you’re the most special one. That’s why I’m going to break my vows and tell you this.” The Moon says, her voice carrying love but also melancholy, and Kyungsoo wonders why. “My dearest child, your songs have stopped coming out right because your heart doesn’t belong to the sea anymore. It has found a new home in that child of the Sun, and therefore on earth. I’ve seen him and I hope that his heart is as pure as it seems to be, and that he stays true to his word of never hurting you.”

While Kyungsoo is elated that the Moon approves of Jongin, he can’t ignore what she just said about his heart no longer belonging to the sea, but rather to earth. Is it because if Jongin and all the time they’ve spent together? Or has he fallen out of grace and gotten himself kicked out of the underwater realm he grew up and is all he knows?

“I don’t understand what that means,” the merman admits as he glances up at the Moon, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and concern. “Where do I belong, then, if not here?” Kyungsoo has just finished elaborating his question when realisation hits him and his eyes go wide, and the tempo of his heartbeat changes once again. “It’s he whom I belong with, right?”

There is a prolonged silence before the Moon gives a single hum in response, sending a wave in Kyungsoo’s direction to caress his fin and cool down his excitement. “Listen carefully and answer honestly, my child.”

“Lying has never been my forte, Mother.” Kyungsoo jokes.

“What do you feel for the human boy?”

Kyungsoo isn’t surprised at all by the question that the Moon has thrown at him, because he’s been asking himself the exact same thing for the past few days, and he was kind of hoping for her to help him figure things out. He shifts his weight on the flat rock he’s seated on and gazes towards the abandoned pier where he’s been meeting with Jongin, though there isn’t much to see due to the lack of proper lightning. However, he doesn’t need to see the pier to know that it’s there, waiting eagerly for the human and the merman to reunite again.

He looks back five years into the past, to those days where he was young and naïve and thought he knew what love was. He spent a good part of that summer watching from afar a man whose face he never saw from up close and whose name he’ll never know, and he remembers how afraid he was that the man might not like him because he wasn’t human. He used to fantasize about him, wondering what kind of things he did when he left the beach and returned home, and dreamed of shedding his tail and growing out legs so they could be together. What was he thinking? Was he really planning to show up unannounced and hope for the man to fall in love with him at first sight? Didn’t the Moon share with the story of the mermaid that became seafoam to warn him about his recklessness and the consequences it could have?

However, it’s not hard to see why she’s being more supportive towards Jongin than she ever was about the other man. If he thinks about it, even the circumstances of their first meeting were unusual and unique, and if Jongin rushing to save him because he thought he was drowning (his nature was unbeknownst to him) isn’t a clear sign that they were made for each other then Kyungsoo doesn’t know what else could be. Jongin came back to wait for him even after he didn’t show up the first time around, and has consistently been visiting and showing him that he cares, and his actions speak louder than words.

“He’s…important to me.” The merman says at last after a long moment of silence, unsure about whether he could call it love already or it was too soon. Based on his experience from five years ago, he decides not to dive head first into it, especially because of the implications of the word.

“Would you be sad if one day you had to part ways and therefore bid him good-bye?”

Kyungsoo frowns. He doesn’t know why the Moon is asking all these questions, but what he does know is that sad wouldn’t be enough to express his feelings if such thing ever happened. “Beyond devastated would be more accurate, I think.”

The Moon hesitates, but eventually asks, “Would you do anything to be with him, regardless of the price that must be paid?”

“I can’t fathom the idea of being away from him.” The merman murmurs in response after another moment of deep thinking, smiling fondly at all the memories that he and Jongin have created together. “Jongin has taught me so much without expecting anything in return, and when I’m with him it’s almost as if I had a soul.”

Seconds tick out and both remain silent while sorting out their thoughts, and when Kyungsoo closes his eyes he thinks he can hear the echoes of honking cars and the nightlife of the city that Jongin has told him about, and takes a moment to wonder what he must be doing right now. Is he out with his friends, or at home with Koko? Perhaps they’re looking at the same Moon, wishing with their hearts what they can’t convey with words? Kyungsoo fancies the thought.

“Then listen very closely to what I’m about to tell you.” The Moon’s voice pulls Kyungsoo out of his thoughts and draws him back to the present time, where he’s perched atop a flat rock with the open sea before him. “You are no longer a kid whom and eye must be kept on and protected. You’ve grown up into a young adult who can make his own decisions and choose what kind of life would be best for you, even if it’s one that requires for me to let you go in order for you to attain happiness.”

“What are you talking about, Mother?” Kyungsoo asks despite the lump in his throat, his large eyes fixed on the sky above.

“Tomorrow night I’ll be up as a New Moon for the third time this season. I’ll align with the Sun and our combined gravitational pull on Earth will cause the high tides to be higher than usual. You must come at midnight and be prepared to experience excruciating pain and the most devastating loneliness and hopelessness, but in return you’ll be granted something you’ve yearned for with all your heart and every fiber of your being. Consider it a fair exchange, my child, even if it might not seem like one.” The Moon pauses to gauge Kyungsoo’s reactions, and then proceeds. “I’ve talked to the Great Force of the sea and we’ve agreed to grant the wish that’s rooted the deepest in your heart.”

The merman’s eyes double their size and his jaw drops in shock, because this is probably the last thing he was expecting to hear tonight. What does his heart yearn for? A soul. A pair of legs. To be with Jongin. He wonders if it’s possible to make three wishes or if he could combine them all in one, but he’s worried that the pain and hopelessness will triplicate if he’s allowed to do either of those things. As scary as the thought is, he can’t let this opportunity pass because it might be the only chance he gets to make a change.

“What do I have to do?”

 

~*~

 

Tonight, is the night where Kyungsoo will either succeed or die trying to become human. 

He swims towards the abandoned pier with a small glass bottle in his left hand and a handful of sea weed in the other, trying to ignore his grumbling stomach and pounding heart, fuelled by adrenaline and hope. Rather than feeling sad that Jongin couldn’t come see him today, Kyungsoo is grateful to have been given time to collect the ingredients for the potion and learn the spell that the Moon taught him, and to have spent his last day in the sea playing with his fish friends and chatting with his loved ones. No good-byes were exchanged and Kyungsoo didn’t make them aware of his intentions, either, because he doesn’t want to drag anyone along when it’s time to face the consequences of his actions. 

The bottle is filled with a shimmery dark potion that he brewed for two hours that morning after he spent the remainder of the night collecting all the ingredients that the Moon recited for him, which he mentally goes over one last time as he dashes through the water just to make sure that got everything right even though it’s already too late to fix any mistakes (if he found any).

_50 gr of ground aquamarine stone. A cup of water. A pinch of sand. A dash of salt. Three of Kyungsoo’s scales. Two of his hairs. A single drop of blood._

There will be no going back once he drinks it, but he’s prepared to face whatever comes his way. If he dies, he’ll become sea foam and float away; if he succeeds, he’ll shed his fin and scales and his tail will split into two legs, and he’ll have to endure it all without a drop of anesthetics to lessen the pain. Being left behind and forgotten by Jongin would be a hundred times worse and the heartbreak might end up killing him, anyway, but he’d much rather die without any regrets. 

It's a beautiful night despite the lack of the Moon in the starry sky above, where not a single cloud is in sight. Kyungsoo hopes that Jongin is somewhere safe having fun or relaxing, and that tomorrow he can surprise him as a new man when he comes to their spot to meet him. Ah, but what if Jongin doesn’t come? What if he does, but decides that he doesn’t like Kyungsoo anymore after his transformation? That will be the ultimate test, and is the part that Kyungsoo is most terrified of because it’s entirely out of his control.

Rejection. Losing Jongin. Those things are scarier than the excruciating pain he’s about to subject himself to, and even death itself. The Moon made very clear that for him to remain human, Jongin must reciprocate his feelings and seal their love before the third sunrise after he drinks the potion, otherwise Kyungsoo would die and become sea foam. That’s right, just like the mermaid she told him about, whose unfortunate fate she witnessed 80 years ago.

Kyungsoo’s life is in Jongin’s hands, and all he can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

“I have come,” he announces to no one in particular as he drags himself to their usual spot under the pier, where the water is shallow and no humans dare venture closer, clutching the glass bottle in his cold hands and taking a few deep breaths to ease the tightness in his chest. It will be alright. “I am ready and unafraid.”

Oh, but he is. Kyungsoo is nothing short of frightened, but he’s made it this far and won’t go back. There’s still a few minutes left until midnight that Kyungsoo uses to prepare everything for the ritual, soaking the sea weeds with the potion and wrapping them around his tail with trembling fingers, leaving in the bottle enough liquid for him to down in a gulp, and then sits there to wait. He tries to appease his nervousness by thinking of every moment spent with Jongin in chronological order, from their unplanned meeting to last night, and takes a moment to reflect on what he’s doing. 

Midnight strikes and Kyungsoo swiftly removes the cork from the glass bottle in his hand, bringing it to his lips and tipping his head back as he swallows its contents. The potion is terribly salty and leaves an unpleasant taste on his tongue, but he quickly overcomes it and pushes his discomfort to the back of his head so he can focus on casting the spell that the Moon taught him. It’s in an ancient language, one that his people has already forgotten but the Moon and the Earth remembered from their young days, and thus would guarantee that the merman’s words were heard.

Kyungsoo goes over the spell three times, keeping his eyes tightly shut and heart open, his breathing turning ragged and body shuddering violently as the potion’s effects start to take over: his throat and tongue go dry and make him desperately scoop up some water to quench his thirst, but it’s so salty that he immediately spits it out; a cry of pain pierces the night when his eyes begin to ache and burn, as if a thousand needles on fire were pricking at them, and the young merman uses every ounce he’s got left of self-control to not scratch them and end up seriously hurting himself.

He’s already overwhelmed by all the terrible sensations he’s experienced thus far, but they easily pale in comparison to the sharp pain that shoots through Kyungsoo’s body as the Prussian blue and silver streaked fin detaches from his tail and is washed away by the waves despite his pleas of giving it back and futile attempts at getting a hold of it.

“No, no, no!” He screeches as he tries to stop the iridescent scales from falling off his tail by the handful, leaving it naked and raw, and the saltiness of the water makes his skin sting and burn. He watches as they float away along with the small glass bottle and the sea weed strips, leaving behind some sort of weirdly shaped chunk of meat attached to his upper body. It’s been drained of all the colours that made it unique, and the cerulean, sapphire, and indigo have blended into a sickly shade of grey that turns white within seconds. His beautiful blue tail is gone and how he resembles a monster, more than ever.

Yet, that isn’t the worst part. Once all scales have been shed, the layer of rubbery skin covering Kyungsoo’s malformed lower body dissolves into white goo and the remaining appendage splits in half, starting from the bottom and all the way up to his hips. The pain is nothing like Kyungsoo has ever experienced before and it makes his stomach churn and sends him into a momentary state of blindness where all he can do is pull at his hair and try to endure this until it’s over. But it’s hard, and the fleeting thought of giving up crosses his mind at some point.

_Please, let me die._

“Are you giving up?” The Moon asks out of the blue, and Kyungsoo finds that her voice alone makes a great source of comfort. “Are you regretting this, even though you’ve come this far?”

_I am not, but this is so painful I think I’m going to die. You might as well let me._

“You’ve done well, my child. Now live happily your chosen path.”

Kyungsoo forces his eyes open through the pain and fear, and the last thing he sees before passing out due to the physical strain and exhaustion is a pair of perfectly shaped legs and ten toes poking out of the water.

 

~*~

 

Seagulls.

Kyungsoo’s ears perk up at the familiar sound and his thick eyebrows furrow as his fingers close around sand, because he doesn’t recall having fallen asleep on the shore. Inside his head he sees flashes of blurry blobs of colour and a few still frames of a glass bottle filled with a shimmery dark liquid and then of his hands and scales floating on the agitated surface of the dark water, but the slightest attempt at further digging into his memories immediately triggers a headache.

Seagulls, and the remote honking of cars.

What time is it, and how long did Kyungsoo sleep? As he slowly comes back to his senses, he also realises that every inch of his body aches and he wonders if perhaps a boat struck him and that’s how he ended up here, washed ashore by the waves. His throat feels dry and his lower body is numb, for some reason. He can’t move his tail.

Seagulls flying over his head, the remote honking of cars as people commute to work or school, and gentle waves crashing against Kyungsoo’s body, making it sway. 

His mind begins to register more details as he awakens and regains consciousness after being out of it for hours, but every little thing he finds about himself is more confusing than the previous one. Firstly, his throat and lips are terribly dry and that’s weird, considering he’s a merman and thus stays properly hydrated at all times. Then, his ears seem to have shrunk and they no longer end in a pointy tip, and his hearing abilities have been boosted by at least a twenty-five percent. When he tries to move the lower half of his body, he screams.

“What? What is this?” Kyungsoo sits up with a gasp and hopes that no one comes running to check on him while he palms along two separate props and further down where he finds two feet that he can move separately, and his heart stops. He succeeded. 

Kyungsoo takes a moment to marvel over his brand-new legs, running his hands over them and feeling every dip and protruding bone, trailing his fingers over the thin layer of fine hairs covering them. He plays with his toes and glides his hands up his soft calves and over his plush thighs, parting his legs to explore what lies between them; it’s an organ shaped like the one he had hidden somewhere beneath his scales when he was still a merman, but the skin covering this one is softer and there’s fuzz growing around its base. He continues exploring his new body with his hands, mapping every inch of it with the pads of his fingers to help him accurately create mental images of what it looks like, and can’t help but giggle when he realises that he could simply open his eyes and find out—and that’s where things get weirder.

If his eyes have been open all this time, then why does he still dwell in darkness? He turns to his left and right and even rubs his eyes in hopes of clearing the black veil obstructing his vision but alas, it doesn’t go away. Why? He tries again but nothing changes besides his growing frustration and the rapid palpitations of his heart, which are eventually overpowered by the Moon’s words from two nights ago playing in his head.

_You must come at midnight and be prepared to experience excruciating pain and the most devastating loneliness and hopelessness, but in return you’ll be granted something you’ve yearned for with all your heart and every fiber of your being. Consider it a fair exchange, my child, even if it might not seem like one._

A fair exchange, huh? Kyungsoo drops his arms as the raw truth dawns upon him, closing his eyes although that hardly makes any difference: his vision was the price he paid for a pair of legs and, although he’s grateful that nothing else was taken from him, he can’t help but resent his loss.

The sea that his eyes held has been drained from them and earth has replaced it, and now the young man’s irises are a dull brown instead of the aquamarine that made them so unique and had earned him the nickname Pretty Eyes, courtesy of Jongin. The sudden realisation that he won’t be able to see his face ever again triggers a wave of sadness that’s intense enough to cause Kyungsoo physical pain and has him wrapping around his arms around his torso to keep himself together, scared that he’d fall apart otherwise.

What’s he supposed to do in this situation? Despite knowing where he is, he can’t leave the pier in his current condition: he’s naked, blind and doesn’t know yet how to use the legs he was given, and there’s still one test left for the transformation process to be completed but nothing can be done until Jongin gets here. All Kyungsoo can do is sit and wait, but no one said that either of those things would be easy. He doesn’t know what time it is or how long he’ll have to stay there until Jongin arrives (if he does come, that is), and his empty stomach is growling louder by the second and he’s begun to shake from the lack of any proper clothes to cover himself with, but he’s too scared to move and try to appease his hunger or try to search for clothes to cover his body. He isn’t bothered by his nudity, but it does make him feel extremely vulnerable.

It isn’t long until dark thoughts start polluting his head and threaten to sweep away the last remnants of Kyungsoo’s hopes, which he’s already struggling to maintain, but he refuses to give them up yet. Losing track of time is easy when one’s blind and thus can’t follow the movements of the Sun as it travels across the sky, and he eventually slips into a restless sleep that ends only when his own nightmares wake up him and Kyungsoo finds himself drenched in cold sweat and that his body temperature has raised at least a couple degrees and, while he does understand that there’s something wrong with him, he can’t pinpoint what because he never got sick while he was still a merman.

Has it been ten minutes since he woke up? Maybe an hour, or two? There is no way for Kyungsoo to know, so he simply stays there with his knees pulled to his chest and arms wrapped around his legs, gaze cast towards the sea although he isn’t looking at anything. His eyes have lost their spark and he feels hollow and lost, and then the questions he’d been avoiding inevitably pop up in his head: is this really worth it? Did he made the right choice by giving away everything he had just for the slim possibility of being with someone who might not even reciprocate his feelings? What is he going to do if Jongin doesn’t show up or worse, if he deems Kyungsoo ugly and a burden after seeing what he’s become?

Another fifteen minutes go by without Kyungsoo noticing and the Sun begins with the preparations to set after a long day, letting his last rays of warm light fall upon the boy curled up by the shoreline and the one cautiously approaching him from behind, his caramel locks bouncing with every step he takes.

“Kyungsoo…?” The newcomer calls softly, sending the former merman’s heart into a frenzy. _He’s here! He came!_ , it yells and a weight is instantly lifted off Kyungsoo’s shoulders. _But wait._

He’s about to turn around to greet Jongin when he remembers his current condition and all the changes he went through overnight, and becomes worried that he might’ve gone through another in his sleep and turned into the monster he felt he was. 

“Don’t look at me,” he pleads weakly, flinching when a hand comes to rest on his shoulder. Funny how he can’t see Jongin yet he can tell that he’s wearing an expression of deep concern on his face. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologising for?” Jongin asks, his breath hitching in his throat when his eyes fall on the pair of legs that have replaced Kyungsoo’s tail. His ears are round and smaller in size and his hair has changed from midnight blue black to plain black, and Jongin belatedly realises that his skin is sunburnt from sitting here for who knows how long without having anything to cover himself with. “Oh, god…”

There it is. Jongin has finally come to his senses and seen him for who he is and now is only a matter of time until he—what? Kyungsoo’s arms are pried off from around his legs and raised above his head, and then something soft and warm is slipped onto his bare torso. It smells like Jongin’s cologne and Kyungsoo instinctively wraps his arms around himself again, further enhancing the sense of protection and belonging that the garment provides.

“I’m sorry, Jongin.” Kyungsoo repeats once he’s found his voice, slowly turning his head towards where he thinks the other is. “I can’t…I can’t see anything.”

Silence. 

“Have you been here all day?” Jongin asks.

Kyungsoo nods, “I was waiting for you. I wasn’t even sure that you’d come but I wanted to believe that you would. And you did.”

Jongin swallows thickly and moves to kneel in front of Kyungsoo to push his dark hair out of his face, tipping his head back and running his thumb over the boy’s flushed cheek. Kyungsoo complies and curls his fingers around Jongin’s wrist, feeling small and exposed under the human’s piercing gaze. He still remembers every little detail about him, from the way his eyes crinkled whenever he laughed to how perfectly aligned his teeth were, and how majestic and happy he looked when he stood on his surfboard and slid over the waves with extraordinary leisure and confidence.

“What happened?”

Kyungsoo hesitates, because he isn’t sure that he’s allowed to tell Jongin the truth but he figures that he owes it to him, especially since he came back against all odds and his reaction was a lot better than he expected. “I couldn’t…I couldn’t fathom the thought of being away from you, so I had the Moon help me find a way to become human. Like you.”

Another long silence follows Kyungsoo’s confession but rather than pouring questions over Jongin and pushing him to answer them, he waits patiently for him to say something. He’s still hungry and running a mild fever but this is the lightest that his heart has felt in the past thirty-six hours and he isn’t naked anymore, so that’s better than no progress at all.

“You didn’t have to change yourself for me.” Jongin mumbles at last and his voice is so soft that Kyungsoo is genuinely surprised by it, as he had assumed that the older boy would be either upset or disappointed.

“Aren’t you mad?”

“Of course not.” Jongin sighs, shaking his head although Kyungsoo can’t see it. “I just wished you had told me so you wouldn’t have to go through this alone, but I guess you had your reasons to keep it a secret from me.”

Kyungsoo purses his lips and nods, grateful beyond words that he isn’t being pressured into explaining why he did the things he did without informing Jongin of his plans, and because he isn’t sure that he’s allowed to disclose this information yet. “It’s a very long story.”

“I’d like to hear it, if you’re willing to share it with me.” Jongin says, and Kyungsoo feels his fingers carefully tucking a strand of hair behind his ear. “Though I’ll understand if you have other things to do.”

“I don’t!”

“I know, Kyungsoo. I was just teasing you.” The man admits and reaches for his neglected bag, pulling a towel from it that he wraps around Kyungsoo’s waist to cover the lower half of his body. If he didn’t know him, Jongin would think he’s just another young man who had a rough day at the beach but oh, he’s so much more than that. It might be selfish of him to think this way but he feels somewhat special to be the only one aware of Kyungsoo’s nature, and to have seen him in his true form. “Can you stand? I’m going to need you to help me out.”

A frown settles on Kyungsoo’s face upon hearing these words and he hesitantly places his hands on Jongin’s shoulders, giving them a squeeze. He doesn’t feel strong enough to stand on the pair of legs he hasn’t learned how to use yet but he’s too embarrassed to tell Jongin, so he decides to get this over with and lets the human help him get onto his feet for the first time. It doesn’t go smoothly. Kyungsoo’s legs quiver and threaten to give up under his weight but Jongin is quick to get a grip on his waist to keep him from collapsing, waiting until he’s steadied himself to readjust the towel around his hips so nothing gets exposed.

“That’s much better. Ready to go home?”

Home? Kyungsoo’s eyes widen and his knees buckle again, but luckily Jongin is there to catch him. Is this really happening? He hopes so, because Jongin wanting to keep him around would be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the light at the end of the tunnel, the highlight of his life; it’d make all his sacrifices and pain worth it, and Kyungsoo thinks he can eventually come to learn to accept and embrace the darkness he’s in as long as Jongin is there, even if it means not being able to see his face again or the new world around him. He’ll manage.

His fingers find something around the older man’s neck and he trails his fingertips along the chain, breaking into a wide grin as he caresses the seashell and the black pearl hanging from it. “Jongin?”

“Hm?”

“I can feel you staring.” He murmurs bashfully as he shifts his weight, eliciting a light chuckle from the other. What’s so funny? Does he not find Kyungsoo ugly? Doesn’t he think he’s stupid and childish? A pair of warm hands cup his cheeks and Jongin presses their foreheads together, taking Kyungsoo’s breath away when the tips of their noses touch. 

“That’s because you still have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”

 

 

~*~

 

 

_**EPILOGUE** _

Today wasn’t a good day for Kyungsoo. 

He doesn’t express it out loud but Jongin immediately knows when he comes home in the afternoon to find him curled up under the covers and by the way he barely touches his dinner, and how he doesn’t show as much excitement as expected over Jongin’s promise to get him some fruit tartlets tomorrow. Later that night he wakes up to find the former merman sitting on the edge of their shared bed with his knees pulled to his chest and head turned in the direction of the window, almost as if he knew where to look at—except he doesn’t and it’s probably a coincidence, because Kyungsoo is blind.

This is only his second day out of the water and thus he’s got a lot to learn about this world so it’s more than understandable that Kyungsoo gets frustrated, but he seems upset over something that he simply refuses to share with Jongin and is probably beyond his comprehension. Is he regretting his decision of becoming a human? Does he miss the sea? Jongin has done everything within his possibilities to help Kyungsoo feel comfortable here, from teaching him how to shower and lending him clothes, to letting him sleep on his bed because he’s scared of being alone. 

“I can feel you staring, you know.” Kyungsoo says quietly, surprising Jongin and almost making him choke on his spit. Luckily, he manages to cover it by clearing his throat.

“I didn’t mean to, but it’s late.”

“Is it?” The younger man asks with a light huff, tracing shapes over his knees with the pads of his forefingers. “It’s hard to tell the time when you can’t see anything. It’s like being stuck in a room with no windows, where it’s nighttime all day long.”

Beautifully tragic, Jongin thinks as he shifts and reaches out to rub Kyungsoo’s back. “Why are you up? It’s almost two in the morning.”

“I was talking to the Moon.” The corners of Kyungsoo’s mouth twitch and curl upwards into a nostalgic smile and Jongin glances out the window to check that she is indeed up tonight. “I’ve been upset over the fact that she’s stopped answering me after I transformed but I know that she can still hear me, and I lose nothing by trying to get my words to reach her. I may have lost my sight and my right to return to the sea but I’m still her child, mind you, and I know for a fact that she would never abandon me. Besides—”

Kyungsoo is cut off by a loud growl coming from his stomach and his cheeks flush a bright shade red in embarrassment, and even Jongin can’t help but smile at the unexpected turn of events.

“Let me get you some warm milk with honey, alright? That should appease your stomach and help you sleep.” He suggests as he sits up and scrambles out of bed before the younger man can protest, yawning and slipping a hand under his shirt to scratch his stomach on his way to the kitchen. 

There he heats up some milk and stirs in a spoonful of organic honey and a pinch of nutmeg, then retraces his steps down the hall and halts when he hears Kyungsoo’s voice, peeking into the room to see that the boy is still sitting on the bed, exactly how Jongin left him less than five minutes ago, and he seems to be either thinking out loud or talking to an invisible presence.

“Mother, can you hear me?” Kyungsoo starts, his voice steady and loaded with sweetness and utmost adoration, and Jongin’s fingers curl tighter around the mug he’s holding. “I thought I’d let you know that I’m alright and you don’t have to worry about me. Jongin is very kind and has taken such good care of me that, even if he doesn’t love me back and I turn into sea foam in the morning, it’ll be okay because this is the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Sea foam? What did that have to do with anything? Jongin can’t shake off the feeling that he’s missing out something important, but rather than asking Kyungsoo about it he’s decided to let him choose the time and place to share that information with him. He lingers by the door for another moment before walking inside and taking a seat on the bed, placing the mug in the younger man’s hands.

“Here you go. Drink it slowly, mm?” He says, and decides not to ignore what his intuition is trying to tell him. For once, he’ll act before thinking. “Ah, but before that, I need you to do something for me.”

“What would that be?”

“I need you to close your eyes.”

Kyungsoo huffs. “Jongin, I can’t see. I doubt that closing them would make any difference on whatever you’re trying to do.”

“Just humour me.” The older man insists, looking straight into Kyungsoo’s quivering brown eyes and their dead pupils that keep trying to find some light amidst the darkness. “Please?”

He seems hesitant to comply with Jongin’s request, but Kyungsoo eventually gives in and shuts his eyes, and Jongin leans in to press their lips together into the softest, most innocent kiss he can manage, cracking an eye open and smiling faintly when he catches the younger man frowning. He pulls back and gives him a moment to collect himself before giving it another shot, and this time around Kyungsoo surprises him by returning the kiss and moving his lips against Jongin’s own for only a few seconds that feel like hours.

“What was that for?” He asks in a whisper when they part, the metal spoon clanking against the mugs as Kyungsoo’s hands tremble. 

“I accidentally overheard you a moment ago.” Jongin pauses. “I don’t want you to become sea foam. I don’t want you to go away, or come home one day and see that you’re gone.”

“Am I not a burden for you?”

“Absolutely not.”

“But I’m blind and dangerous!” Kyungsoo snaps at last under the weight of the pent-up emotions and the mug slips from his hands, shattering when it hits the floor and spilling its contents everywhere. “I killed a man five years ago, when he tried to capture me. I got my heart broken by a man that I used to watch from afar and to this day remains unaware of my existence. I didn’t even think of asking about your thoughts on this matter, not once considered how much my actions would affect you and your life. I just went against nature and got a pair of legs to be with you, but now I can’t even see you!”

Jongin doesn’t even flinch at the sudden outburst, having witnessed far worse throughout his life, and waits until it’s over to finally speak up. “Kyungsoo, I don’t care about any of those things. I’m not saying that they aren’t important but they’re all in the past and you can’t live there forever. You are not who you were five years ago and I doubt you could harm anyone on purpose, because you’re noble and selfless. You said that how you ended up like this was a long story and you don’t have to tell me everything right now, but do know that I’ll listen to you whenever you’re ready because I really like you and—oh, no. Don’t cry, please. I’m sorry.”

“I am not!” Kyungsoo squeaks out as he rubs his eyes and sniffles, overwhelmed by both Jongin’s words and the realisation that he’s passed the final test and he’s safe. He won’t become sea foam. “Merfolk have neither a soul nor tears, and therefore cannot cry!”

“Then what do you call those things in your eyes, and the ones rolling down your cheeks?”

_Tears._ Kyungsoo freezes and tries to think of an alternative explanation to whatever’s happening to him, wondering if he can blame it on the weather or the gravitational pull of the Moon on him, although deep inside he knows the truth and it’s a no brainer. He’s crying real tears for the first time in his life and they’re warm and salty like the water of the sea, and he ponders if the reason behind this is that they’re meant to be a reminder for him to don’t forget where he came from and his old life. 

Moreover, they’re a sign that he’s no longer an empty shell and the void that the sea he carried within him left has been filled with an immortal soul for him to enjoy the years he has left as a mortal man, and he’ll do it with Jongin by his side.

 

~*~

 

Hours go by and soon it’s time for the Moon to take her leave, but she decides to linger around just a little longer, enough for her to hear Kyungsoo’s giggles and see him squirm as a Dalmatian licks his face to awake him. Long enough to see him cry again out of happiness, and for the human boy to wrap his arms around his body to comfort him.

“Still out, dear?” The Sun asks upon noticing her presence, glancing in the direction of the building where Kyungsoo and Jongin live. “I’ll look after your boy, if such is your wish.”

“Why, it is. Thank you.”

The Sun gives her enough time to put some distance between them before going up a little higher on the sky, making sure to shine extra bright today. “Good night.”

“And good morning to you.” The Moon says, and decides to send Kyungsoo one last message before leaving for today.

_Goodnight to you, too, my child._


End file.
